Making sense of Asim Munir's madness amid rising India-Pakistan tensions

New Indian Express

11-05-2025

The man at the helm
General Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, born in 1968, became the 11th chief of the Pakistan Army on November 29, 2022, replacing General Qamar Javed Bajwa. He had two major stints with the powerful intelligence directorate of Pakistan Army, was director of military intelligence in 2016 and took over as the director general of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in 2018, Pakistan's deep state.
His ISI tenure was truncated after his relations with then prime minister Imran Khan, who is now in jail, soured. When Imran was arrested, he had publicly implicated Munir for playing a role in his arrest. Imran's successor Shehbaz Sharif chose Gen Munir as the Pakistan Army chief. Imran had tried to spike Gen Munir's appointment at army chief and lobbied to instal his trusted officer Gen Faiz Hameed in the powerful seat instead.
Saddled with a sinking economy that survives on foreign bailouts, runaway inflation, home-grown insurgency and popular outrage over the jailing of Imran, Gen Munir possibly sought to deflect attention with his provocative anti-India statements. Pahalgam happened soon after, suggesting the two were linked. Imran's fallout with the army had eroded the latter's clout. Under Gen Munir, the militablishment is back in control of the nation.
Munir had headed the ISI when tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pulwama suicide attack in February 2019 that resulted in the death of 40 CRPF personnel. He is said to have been among the people shaping Pakistan's response and security measures since then.
Interestingly, Gen Munir has his roots, like Pervez Musharraf, in India, which in his case is in Jalandhar, Punjab. Peddling the two-nation theory, he said on April 17, "Our religions are different, our customs are different, our traditions are different, our thoughts are different, our ambitions are different. That was the foundation of the two-nation theory that was laid there. We are two nations, we are not one nation."
He advised his audience to tell the story of Pakistan creation to their children "so that they don't forget that our forefathers thought we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life."
His role model
The Taliban is Pakistan deep state's baby as are other India-facing terrorist outfits. Through the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Pakistan army sought to extend its strategic reach into Afghanistan.
But the Durand line between Afghanistan and Pakistan is now active, with Taliban terror attacks deep inside Pakistan and retaliatory action. Add to that the continuing insurgency in Balochistan, and Gen Munir's finds himself challenged from every side.
Munir is known to adore Gen Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and model himself after him. It was Zia who operationalised the doctrine of "bleeding India with a thousand cut"s by using terror as an instrument of state policy.
From Gen Parvez Musharraf to the current Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif, many well-placed people have openly talked about Pakistan's history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations. Terror groups have been the extended arm of the Pakistani army, which sponsors, funds and trains them and uses them as proxies.
Khwaja Asif's admission came in the wake of Operation Sindoor. He said Pakistan supported terrorist groups for three decades, did the 'dirty work' on behalf of the West during the Soviet-Afghan war and the US-led war against the Taliban following the 9/11 attacks. That policy was a mistake, he said, adding Pakistan paid a heavy price for its actions.